Song for an Equinox

Saint-John Perse

Mar 2017 · Princeton University Press

About this ebook

"For Perse these lines are brief, but they are as fine as anything he has done." With these words The Times Literary Supplement greeted the publication in France of the last four poems written by the Nobel Prize winner before his death in 1975. This volume provides their French texts with an English translation by Richard Howard, completing the publication in Bollingen Series of the collected poetry of St.-John Perse.

Originally published in 1977.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

About the author

Saint-John Perse managed to combine poetry with diplomacy most of his life. Born on a small family-owned island of Guadeloupe, he became a member of the French diplomatic corps and was permanent secretary of foreign affairs after Briand's death and until the Germans invaded France. He fled to England, then Canada, and, at the request of Archibald MacLeish came to the United States to act as consultant on French poetry to the Library of Congress. Manuscripts left behind when he escaped from France were destroyed by the Nazis. He received the Nobel Prize in 1960.